With the big push to get pistes (dirt tracks) or goudrons (surfaced/tarmac roads) and electricity into as many mountain villages as possible many pleasant old mule tracks are being destroyed. Most valleys, however, will have mule tracks or paths on both flanks, so one can walk on the friendlier side. Resist walking on pistes – they are hard and hot on the feet and enervating for the soul. It isn’t possible to keep tabs on all such recent developments, so this is a general warning.
Getting there and getting around
One blessing of the last few years is the availability of cheap flights. The national line Royal Air Maroc has their own cheaper version in Atlas Blue, and firms like Easyjet, Ryanair and Thompson operate out of Gatwick, Heathrow or Luton and elsewhere in the UK. Marrakech is the main destination (and the best for the Atlas), and some flights go to Agadir. In Morocco there’s a good rail system, and where it ends railway-run express buses take over (Supratours). There are plenty of inter-town bus services, and when the tarmac (goudron) runs out there are camions (lorries) and camionettes (pick-ups), which we have often used. Hiring Land Rovers is very expensive in comparison, but may be worth paying for to make certain of a remote rendezvous.
Village transport, Atlas style
Once you learn the ropes you’ll find the travel system in Morocco surprisingly efficient. For example, you could leave Essaouira on the coast, catch the morning train from Marrakech, be in Tangier by evening and cross the Straits to sleep in Spain the same night. (I doubt if in the UK it would be possible to leave Kinlochbervie and make Calais in one day by public transport overland.)
Nationals from the UK, the EU and most Commonwealth countries do not require a visa (others should check). As a tourist you are allowed a three-month stay (it’s in the small print usually, so most people don’t realise this, but few are staying for so long anyway). Stay longer and you’ll find yourself in the coils of the bureaucratic monster, the first requirement being seven passport photographs.
Bureaucracy
Morocco loves its bureaucracy – after all, they were French taught (when the French left Morocco they had four times as many civil servants for the country as the British had for India). In remote areas local headmen may want your particulars, occasionally the police may too, and, of course, hotels require them for the dreaded registration fiche, which must be completed for every member of the party on arrival at each hotel. So prepare a sheet with each person’s name, address, home telephone number, e-mail, passport number and date of issue and expiry, place and date of birth, date of entering Morocco, profession, next of kin’s name, relationship, address and telephone number, and leave room for the number stamped in passports on arrival! You can hand it over at hotels and tell them to fill in the fiche. If you are in a group this form is also a useful contacting sheet. Next of kin details wil not be needed with luck, but one commercial outfit was rightly criticised when one trekker had a serious accident and the organiser did not know who to get in touch with.
Local guides
I have found local guides to be invaluable in my wanderings in the Atlas. In fact, this book is dedicated to El Aouad Ali, a remarkable Berber from the Western Atlas who has been the kingpin in almost all my major ventures – and on the often-mentioned GTAM95 – which would not have been contemplated without his skills. The great thing, too, is that he speaks English as well as French, Arabic and the Atlas Berber languages.
Aït Idir Mohammed and El Aouad Ali, the author’s most constant helpers
Many years ago I spent some time looking for ways up the Jbel Kest in the Anti Atlas because the first trekking company going into the area wanted to make an ascent part of their programme. Everyone had assumed the Kest to have the highest summit in the Anti Atlas. Later I realised Aklim was higher and I mentioned to Ali that some of us would head for it next spring. In the months before we came, he explored the area, found camp sites, local facilities and a route up the mountain. He is that sort of Atlas enthusiast – and a delightful person – and an expert organiser. I really do recommend getting in touch with him and making use of his experience to organise transport, mules and anything else. Take all the worries out of the enjoyment!
In any description in this book I have mentioned the local help we used, and more on this can be gleaned from Appendix E. All the best professional guides maintain a network of contacts everywhere. Naturally I’ve used the same people again and again, so don’t hesitate to mention these tried and tested guides. Through their training schemes there are now hundreds of trained, certificated guides (beware of ‘faux guides’), with offices in major places including Imlil, Ouarzazate, the Bou Guemez, Tinerhir and Boumalne des Dadès.
Local language and culture
I deeply regret not learning more Arabic or Tamazight and Tashelhait, the main Berber languages of the Atlas. I shouldn’t say ‘Berber’ really. The word is of the Roman period. The people prefer ‘Amazigh’, the free people. French is the main European language spoken/understood, with English a poor second. Some Berber and many French words are universally used for practical communication, regardless of speakers’ nationalities. These are fully listed in Appendix A. They may be translated on their first appearance in the book, but are not given italics.
The walls of Taroudant
Names of all types are inseperable from local lore and culture. As with Gaelic, many names translate interestingly, while others are so murdered in translation as to be beyond recognition. Having our regular guide Ali along, we often gain fascinating background information. As one wanders more extensively other aspects catch the imagination. People’s clothing, for instance, has local and tribal variations, and the architecture, always impressive, can also have noticeable differences.
Village girls in the Western Atlas
But, if nothing else, it is the people who will lure me back (as long as possible), for they are hardy, brave, ingenious, friendly and openly hospitable. Family life is strong, their culture and traditions are maintained, and values are held which we have lost in the greedy West, whose polluting ways will yet contaminate this bastion of free people.
Health and safety
The Atlas is one of the healthiest of mountain ranges. There aren’t as many microscopic or creepy-crawly nasties as in some other ranges. Take elementary precautions and you’d be unlucky to pick up anything really bad. At habitation level don’t drink stream water; giardia is possible. In the south avoid contact with still waters; bilharzia is possible. High sources (springs) are clean, and in habited areas you can buy bottled water or consume drinks made with boiling water. Over the years we’ve all drunk mint teas offered, sometimes in pretty unhygienic places, without coming to harm – and the food offered, such as tagine, is long cooked and usually safe.
Shopping at Talat-n-Yacoub souk (Route 34)
I’ve seen a whole season of various groups trekking for three months with no upset tummy. And when they do get it, it is often in some city or hotel setting, not sprawled in a mess tent in the wilds. One thing I do insist on is that everyone uses Wet Wipes, or some such, on their hands before meals. An upset tummy can feel pretty awful, a night of the runs and